Recap: Live blog of Senate space hearing with Elon Musk

March 5, 2014, 9:48 AM ET

Bloomberg

Elon Musk testifying Wednesday

Read a recap of a live blog from MarketWatch’s Rob Schroeder about a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing featuring testimony from Elon Musk, head of both SpaceX and Tesla Motors. Musk testified about national security space launch programs alongside Michael Gass, the president and CEO of the United Launch Alliance.

Next up: Richard Shelby, a Republican. He says the the Defense Department is moving ahead with a new procurement strategy for the so-called evolved expendable launch vehicle program. He says competition in this case may not result in a lower price for the federal government.

The GAO in a new report said the Pentagon may not be able to take full advantage of new competition in the national security launch market because it can’t determine an accurate price for a launch by the United Launch Alliance. Read about that here.

Musk’s SpaceX says one of its medium-class launchers is expected to receive Air Force approval to compete against United Launch Alliance rockets for launches of sensitive national security payloads, according to this report.

Gass is defending his company’s relationship with Russia. Durbin asks: what about your capacity to produce engines in the U.S.? Gass acknowledges a co-production agreement with a Russian company but says the same engine can be built by ULA.

Durbin is asking Gass about the chart shown by Feinstein, showing higher costs, and if ULA is overcharging taxpayers. Durbin says U.S. is facing an “awful” budget situation. Why shouldn’t we allow competition?

Here’s some good background on SpaceX and ULA battling for Air Force rocket contracts. As of late last month, the Air Force was still reviewing SpaceX launches to determine whether they count toward certification.

The hearing’s over now. Tesla-watchers didn’t get their fix, but there was certainly a lively debate over competition for space launches. Don’t forget to follow Capitol Report on Twitter @capitolreport.